Leading developer Comer Homes has partnered with popular local group the North London Community Consortium (NLCC) and sector leading digital skills provider, the Digital Twin Skills Academy CIC to deliver a fully integrated digital hub within the North London Business Park on Brunswick Park Road. The group, which operates NLCC Radio, will move its operations to the purpose-built space to deliver youth services around its holistic umbrella C.H.O.I.C.E.S (Choose, Health, Opportunity, Independence, Character, Employment, Skills).

Comer Homes has supported NLCC with the fit out of the space, which will be used to set up a digital academy for local young people to obtain practical skills they can use to build a future career. NLCC Radio will be used mainly as engagement tool for local and wider communities and as a platform to showcase local talent. The radio station will be used to raise awareness of issues that are important to young people, providing information and advice and presenting real world skills to local disenfranchised young people, especially from the BAME community.

Commenting on the completion of the Digital Hub at North London Business Park, Jack O’Brien, Construction Director at Comer Homes, said: “It’s a real honour for us to be able to deliver this fit-for-purpose space to an important local community group. Ahead of the construction programme we want to utilise the site as much as possible and feel this is a perfect partnership to allow local disenfranchised young people the opportunity to improve their life skills and take part in something that can make a real difference to the area.”

Nigeal Andall, CEO of North London Community Consortium, commented: “We are happy to support the efforts of the Comer Group by galvanising the local community as an extension of our earlier relationship, which began from our Allotmentz Restaurant, located in Friern Barnet. The digital hub is a multifaceted and targeted offer, with the young people in mind but also extends with an offer that can be tailored to suit the needs of the more mature.

“Our critical focus is pre-employment and local engagement for the 16-25 age group [led by Nessa Primus of Primus Consulting Services CIC] with a view to empowering local young people. We look forward to supporting the delivery of the Digital Twin Skills Academy and our social value offer.”

Occupying a c.17-hectare site, Comer Homes is set to deliver a spectacular mixed-use development at the North London Business Park. The first phase of Royal Brunswick Park will deliver over 300 new homes, comprising stylish houses and apartments, alongside a secondary school, gym and sports facilities. Outline planning permission has also been granted for a further 990 homes as part of a planned second phase.

Before construction of Royal Brunswick Park begins the site is being used for positive community meantime use, with the NLCC C.H.O.I.C.E.S digital hub one of the flagship schemes. The NLCC radio station, which will be broadcast from the space, is made of youth practitioners, young social commentators and community champions, who want to make a difference through proactive social action using the media.

The space will also be used to launch the Digital Twin initiative, which is a unique software offering in the property and development space using video game technology to build online equivalents of new and existing buildings. Called the ‘DTSA Programme’, led by Bola Abisogun OBE FRICS, Founder and President and Joseph Michael Daniels Co-Founder and Vice President, the unique industry offering focusses on promoting digital construction and has been designed to attract and engage with young people with an interest in the property and construction sector.

The digital platform is designed to deliver the ‘Golden Thread’ of information management and could be utilised by developers and property managers to protect and extend the whole life cycles of their built assets and comply with the Building Safety Act 2022. Comer Homes is set to be the first residential developer [in the UK] to take on and adopt the scheme, which will be in use at Royal Brunswick Park.